Blog Post Focus: MCAT Preparation Styles
This post will explore my thoughts on professional courses versus self-study for the MCAT. It will also explore the competitive nature of medical school and why the MCAT is important. I will also give some of my story. I chose self-prep, but may have been better off with professional preparation.
Introduction–Competition and the Importance of the MCAT
Medical school is competitive. And before you ever get to medical school, you have to work hard and get good grades to get in. One particularly important test is the MCAT. The MCAT has changed in recent years with its content focus and scoring, but the importance of scoring highly remains the same. So, it begs the question: how best to prepare for the MCAT?
Two Routes—Self-study and Professional Courses
Two routes for MCAT study are self-directed study and professional courses. Both have merits and both can lead to success. Both have downsides. Ultimately, self-study puts all the burden on you. A professional course guides you and directs your focus and can optimize studying.
Self-Directed Study
This is the path I had chosen. The material the MCAT covers is readily available online. I took prerequisite courses in college and felt I would do fine. I did buy some practice tests through Kaplan to take and had scored well enough on those I felt ready for the MCAT in person. I hadn’t felt I needed more. If you are very confident, spending-averse, or feel any medical school is a good option for you this could be a reasonable choice.
Although I did well with self-study, I suspect I would have done better with a professional course. I think I would have had a much greater grasp of what was high-yield and what was not worth focusing on.
I think it also would have prepared me for directed focus toward more important topics in medical school. Instead, for a long time I had a poor sense of what to focus on throughout medical school studying.
Professional Courses
If you type in “mcat prep courses” in search engines tons of results immediately display. Kaplan and Princeton Review are two popular choices, but there are several more. Professional courses can be costly, but I think they have value for many applicants.
For anyone who wants to save time and stress, a professional course is probably a good idea. Sure, the content covered by the MCAT is available online and one can self-study, but these professional courses are made by people selling a product. They have an incentive to prepare a high-quality course. They have reason to focus on the highest-yield information and to streamline your studying. They can come with comprehensive plans for studying, which can be helpful for most applicants.
Benefits of Self-Study and Professional Courses
The major benefit of self-directed study is cost-saving and remaining with a study style you are comfortable with. The major benefit of a professional course is guidance. This guidance may well be worth the money to save time and energy and stress by focusing on high-yield information and skimming less important information. It can give you test-taking tips and strategies and may include practice exams to simulate the actual test day. Moreover, these courses can give you a sense of how well they work for you and if they will benefit you for board exams throughout your medical education—each which can determine if you are competitive for specific specialties and your ultimate career in medicine.
Conclusion
Professional courses have several advantages over self-study. They can save time, improve study habits, and help you decide if professional courses are helpful for you in preparing for your future medical education exams. Therefore, although I had not used professional courses, I would recommend that any prospective medical student consider using a professional MCAT prep course.
It may be expensive, but the guidance may add more value. Saving time and money and potentially increasing likelihood of matching into a desired specialty is a huge payoff.